In-situ LIBS and NRA deuterium retention study in porous W-O and compact W coatings loaded by Magnum-PSI

•W and W-O coatings with different characteristics were exposed to D plasma.•D retention in these coatings was measured with in-situ LIBS and NRA.•W coatings with low O content had almost the same D retention by NRA and LIBS.•Porous W-O coating had highest D retention while LIBS signal was an order smaller. The purpose of this study is to investigate the applicability of in-situ laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) for deuterium retention measurements in tungsten coatings with different morphology and oxygen content. These were exposed to a Gaussian beam of deuterium plasma in the Magnum-PSI linear plasma device. The deuterium line intensities determined by LIBS were compared with the deuterium content measured by nuclear reaction analysis (NRA). Both LIBS and NRA results showed that higher deuterium retention was achieved in the coating region corresponding to the periphery of the plasma beam. This decreasing deuterium retention in the central region can be attributed to higher surface temperature. At the same time, the deuterium retention in different coating types assessed by LIBS D intensity was markedly different from the retention determined by NRA. Porous W-O coating with high oxygen content had the highest deuterium retention according to NRA while D intensity obtained by LIBS was an order of magnitude smaller when compared with other coatings. The deuterium retention in compact W coating and thick W coating was almost the same and LIBS D intensities were also comparable for these coatings. The results demonstrate the LIBS applicability and its limits in different coating types.